Modern technological advances have allowed for a wide and growing variety of increasingly sophisticated and complex electronic devices and machines. Various electronic hardware components and software modules have been devised over the years to produce devices and machines having faster processing capabilities, better video presentations, higher quality audio sound systems, and other new and upgraded primary features. One example of such a component is a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), which is generally a specialized intelligent electronic hardware component that is used to provide a given electronic device or machine with more complex and higher quality audio and video, as well as other capabilities.
DSPs and other types of specialized and powerful processing components are frequently used in a variety of electronic components and devices where better audio or video capabilities are particularly valued. DSPs can tend to be a relatively complex component, however, thereby adding cost, complexity, and potentially undesirable complications or side effects when used, such that their use is far from universal in all types of electronic devices. In fact, several types of machine manufacturers, and even industries, generally avoid the use of DSPs or similar devices due to the prohibitive costs, complexities, and/or one or more other undesirable features of these components. One such industry that has traditionally avoided DSPs, for example, is the gaming machine (i.e., slot machine) industry.
Unfortunately, a substantially higher amount of scrutiny is leveled against regulated gaming machines and proposed gaming machine designs having more than one “intelligent” electronic device in communication with any game play or payout mechanisms. That is to say, authorities and regulators in most gaming jurisdictions tend to be more objectionable or critical whenever any secondary or additional processing unit is allowed to be in communication with any vital machine function outside a single primary central processing unit (CPU) (typically known as a master gaming controller (MGC)). Such objections and reservations are generally understandable, given the exponential avenues for fraud and cheating, as well as the added regulatory requirements and oversight, that tend to be introduced with the addition of any auxiliary or secondary microprocessors in a given gaming machine. Such objections and reservations tend to be problematic, however, in that undue delay in the approval and release of newly designed gaming machines is likely in the event that such new designs are even approved in the first place. Accordingly, the design and manufacture of gaming machines has been traditionally restricted to older and more limited audio and video technologies that do not include the use of DSPs or other powerful auxiliary processors, thus rendering gaming machines in particular as an ideal illustrative example for the types of sound systems discussed herein.
The present inventors are nevertheless aware of at least one line of gaming machines that have implemented DSPs in some form, with those being gaming machines manufactured under the Williams label by WMS Gaming, Inc. of Waukegan, Ill., which gaming machines include model ADSP-21065 chips manufactured by Analog Devices Inc. of Norwood, Mass. As best understood by the present inventors, however, the DSPs in these gaming machines are used only for purposes of “data decompression,” which is a narrowed and simple purpose for using a DSP, as explained in greater detail below. In addition, the present inventors are also aware that U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,984,780 and 6,556,450 refer to the possible use of a DSP within the context of a gaming machine, although any uses beyond a simple and common data decompression functionality are not mentioned by either of these two references.
Due in part to the rather restrictive atmosphere in the regulation of gaming machines, gaming machine sound and video systems tend to be relatively inflexible, and typically do not allow for the wide range of customized functions and features found in other electronic devices. Ordinary apparatuses and methods for providing, for example, audio signals in an electronic device or machine, such as a gaming machine, are generally well known, and instances of such apparatuses and methods can be found in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,695,053, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. It is generally known that gaming machines are typically manufactured with relatively older and simpler off-the-shelf sound circuits. While such circuits provide some level of necessary functionality, they are limited in capability, restrict future expansion, and are not readily portable from one audio standard to another. In addition, such circuits can be relatively expensive to replace when they break down or otherwise wear out.
Sources of audio data for such simpler systems typically include recorded sound clips that are stored in digitized .WAV (or “wave”) sound files, which tend to require particularly large amounts of memory. Another exemplary source of audio data that is currently used in gaming machines are sounds generated by a dedicated FM operator circuit. Both of these types of sources, as well as others, generally involve the use of uncompressed data that is played back or transmitted in full without mixing, alterations or customizations. Within a gaming machine, such sound circuits and sources of audio data are traditionally controlled and commanded by a single CPU or MGC, again primarily due to industry regulations and restrictions.
It is well known to those skilled in the art that gaming machines are becoming more and more sophisticated, such that presently used sound systems are becoming too slow and/or inadequate to meet the demands and functions required of more sophisticated machines. New and expanding types of gaming machines, such as “theme” machines comprising, for example, “Wheel of Fortune” or “Elvis” types of themes, can require many different sound clips and variations on those clips. Such requirements tend to result in the need for massive amounts of memory storage in simplistic “play-back” types of sound systems, with the resulting product still not performing or sounding as nice or smooth as more complex electronic sound systems that require a fraction of the memory storage space. Not only do the costs and logistics associated with providing ever increasing amounts of memory storage become more and more prohibitive with the increasing complexity of the newer gaming machines, but the sound quality and functionality continues to lag behind that of other electronic devices and machines as well.
Accordingly, there exists a need for improved apparatuses and methods for generating and controlling electronic signals in an electronic device, and in particular for such apparatuses and methods to provide ways of actually fully utilizing a DSP or other powerful auxiliary processor in a gaming machine.